Not in Bruno’s case. Remember that this story began with Bruno leaving home after having left college, where she couldn’t figure out what she wanted it for. Since that time, despite her constant intellectualizing, she has fled in terror from her own motives and her deeper impulses, indulging them (as with stripping) as much as avoiding them.

That’s why being shanghaied bemused her; somebody else had an idea what to do with her, something preservationist, when she herself did not. Stanley’s observation is not condescending as much as it is casually revelatory. He’s seen this tailspin before. And he isn’t shy about letting her know she’s become predictable, even when she thinks she has no clue. She does. She just doesn’t see them.